Master of Science – Environmental Health

Required courses can include, but are not limited to, those listed below – consult your specific Area of Interest for all course requirements.  

• ID 100 Foundations for Public Health 
• EH 205 Human Physiology 
• EH 263 Analytical Methods and Exposure Assessment 
• EH 504 Principles of Toxicology 
• EH 508 Master’s Thesis and Collaborative Research in Environmental Health 
• EH 206 Foundations of Environmental Health 
• EPI 201 Introduction to Epidemiology: Methods I (and required lab) 
• EPI 202 Epidemiologic Methods 2: Elements of Epidemiologic Research (and required lab) 
• At least 10 credits of Biostatistics coursework – consult with your advisor 

Plus additional curricular requirements depending on your area of interest.

Elective courses should be chosen in consultation with your advisor. Here is a sample of elective options:

• EH 252: High Performance Buildings for Health, Comfort, and Sustainability
• EH 257: Water Pollution
• EH 263 Analytical Methods and Exposure Assessment
• EH 525: Environmental Justice: Concepts and Practice
• SBS 207: Race, Ethnicity and Health: Perspectives from the Social and Behavioral Sciences
• SBS 220: Social and Structural Inequities and Children’s Health

*Note: Elective requirements vary based on area of interest.

• Learn to address critical health challenges that affect the lives of individuals and entire populations.
• Build expertise in an area of specialization while gaining the perspective of multiple public health disciplines. 
• Acquire a powerful set of analytical, technical, and quantitative skills that can be applied flexibly in a wide range of career paths. 
• Contribute to the scientific understanding of public health through original laboratory and/or field research.
• Learn to critically evaluate scientific literature and apply scientific knowledge in real-world settings. 

SM Students choose to align themselves with one of these faculty research areas:

• Climate and Sustainability: This area examines the link between public health and the health of our planet, focusing on climate change as one of the most pressing issues of our time, specifically the effects on public health and ways to mitigate those impacts through sustainability. Courses explore the effects of energy production and climate change on food, water, air, soil, food systems, waste, environmental justice, and human health, through the lens of social justice and health equity. There are options for direct community engagement and outreach.
• Environmental Justice: Students focus on the disparities in environmental exposure and associated health outcomes, considering macro- and micro-level factors that impact communities and strategies for solution-oriented approaches, including discussion of research translation, implementation science, environmental health literacy, and other areas. Theoretical frameworks, analytic approaches, and practical applications will be addressed in the context of socio-historical processes, stakeholders, and agency that can be learned from and engaged with to improve environmental health inequities.
• Epidemiology: This field focuses on identifying and measuring the influence of physical, chemical, and biological environmental factors on human disease in communities to provide scientific evidence for sound environmental and health policies.
• Exposures and Risk Sciences: This area emphasizes exposure assessment and risk and decision science in the context of environmental health.  Students learn skills in chemical, physical, microbiological, and engineering aspects of environmental and occupational exposures, including identification and characterization of human and ecological exposures to environmental contaminants, modeling their fate and transport, and developing strategies to control environmental hazards, allergens, and pathogens. Additionally, students have the opportunity to obtain an integrated education in risk and decision science including exposure assessment, epidemiology and toxicology.
• Occupational Health: Students focus on workplace and environmental hazards, the physiological and biomechanical aspects of work, the risks posed by the interaction of genetic and environmental factors, and a practical approach to solving health problems in various work and community settings. This program is designed for physicians and other professionals who intend to practice occupational medicine or to hold responsible positions in occupational policy and management.